“She deserves it as much as me”, said Oleksiak, the first athlete born in the 21st century to claim an Olympic gold in an individual event. “It was definitely something I found inspiring, and I hope I inspire other young women back home to get into swimming”.
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It wasn’t the greatest follow-up to Manuel’s thrilling victory on Thursday, but her 24.44-second sprint was enough to get through to the final on Saturday where she’ll race for another medal.
Manuel commented on police brutality, calling her win significant given the political climate in the US, where it is every other day that the public hears about police killing civilians.”It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality”, Manuel told reporters, according to USA Today.
“I’m only 16 so it’s pretty insane to win a gold medal in your first Olympics”. In the lead-up to the event she forced herself to briefly distance herself from the significance of being a rare black swimmer representing the U.S, in order to focus on chasing victory. “It is for some of the African-Americans who have come before me”, she said.
Canadian Penny Oleksiak and Simone Manuel of the United States were inseparable at the finish and even more united in joy, after a stunning 100 metres freestyle dead heat rewarded both with Olympic gold on Thursday.
In Chesterfield County, coaches at Swim RVA say they already see an impact and a new glimmer of hope in the eyes of their young athletes. In the summer of 2014 Manuel conducted a swim clinic at the pool.
“I went out there and swam as fast as I could”, she said, “and my color just comes with the territory”. “People are going to be excited and say, ‘hey I can do that too'”.
What she saw instead was life-changing.
“That’s not true because I work just as hard as anyone else and I love the sport and I want to win just like everybody else”. I hope that I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming.
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“Simone x2”, Biles tweeted on Friday, adding a gold medal emoji to a selfie of the two Olympic champions.
